As momentum for 5G accelerates now that rollout to select cities has begun, telecoms and smartphone vendors are already beginning to experiment with what can be done with the new technology.
Take SK Telecom for example that has signed an agreement to build a 5G-based autonomous vehicle infrastructure to advance smart city development in the Korean Incheon Free Economic Zone (IFEZ).
Under the deal, SK Telecom will create a high-definition map covering the entire IFEZ area starting with Songdo International City. The map is a machine-readable map with centimeter-level accuracy, offering information for lanes, road conditions, speed limits and road slopes.
The belief is that these types of maps will be key to enabling Level 4 and eventually Level 5 autonomy for self-driving cars.
The maps will be built with a real-time solution for HD maps that will automatically update as road observation data is received from advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) over SK’s 5G network.
SK Telecom said it plans to install ADAS and 5G communication modules in public transport vehicles and official/government cars in the IFEZ area to detect all changes in the road environment.
Additionally, SK Telecom will build a data hub to manage and analyze data from the maps to enable smarter transportation policies. SK and IFEZ will also create “Venturepolis,” a hub for startups to create 5G-related applications that would be applicable to a smart city.
